Rochester Bicycle Boulevards Plan

Purpose

To develop a plan to create parallel bicycle-friendly streets along key arterial corridors characterized by high automobile traffic volumes, high parking demand, and/or constrained rights of way which make standard on-street bicycle lanes difficult to achieve.

Background

The City of Rochester completed the Rochester Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) in January 2011 to guide the City’s investment in on-street bicycle facilities and bicycle-supportive services. A major product of the BMP is a prioritized list of arterial and collector streets for on-street bicycle improvements. Many of the City’s arterial and collector streets possess high traffic volumes, high parking demand, and/or constrained rights-of-way which make bicycle enhancements such as on-street bicycle lanes or shared-use lanes difficult to achieve. In such cases, the development of a parallel or “one-off” network of low-traffic, bike-friendly streets should be considered.

Bicycle boulevards, also known as "neighborhood greenways," are a series of inter-connected streets which have been modified to provide enhanced accommodation as through streets for bicyclists while discouraging through automobile traffic. The BMP identified bicycle boulevards as an increasingly-popular technique nationwide and recommended that the City pursue their implementation locally. The City has engaged Alta Planning + Design to develop the Rochester Bicycle Boulevard Plan, which will make recommendations for creating a network of bicycle boulevards in the City of Rochester with a focus on alternatives to streets for which on-street bicycle facilities are challenging and/or to provide connections between key destinations. Identification of adjacent, low-volume neighborhood streets as bicycle boulevards will greatly enhance Bicycle Level of Service in these difficult corridors and in so doing, will greatly strengthen bike friendliness in our city.

Public Involvement

Two “pop-up” public meetings were held concurrently on Oct 1, 2014 to provide an overview of the proposed bicycle boulevard route network and the preliminary prioritization of those routes.

Both pop-up meetings were located along pilot one-mile Bicycle Boulevard routes that the City installed using temporary signage, markings, and traffic calming features. The West Pilot Route will runs from Ravenwood Ave. at Genesee Park Blvd. to Frost Ave. at Rugby Ave.; the East Pilot Route will runs from the Genesee Riverway Trail at Averill Ave. to Meigs St. at Monroe Ave. The pilot routes will be in place for approximately two weeks, giving residents and visitors ample opportunity to try them out.

The first of two public meetings was held on Feb 11, 2014. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an overview of the project, share findings regarding existing conditions, and solicit suggestions from the public regarding desired routes, destinations, and other priorities.